France moves forward with cell jamming

The French government has approved mobile phone jamming for theaters and …

The French government has given theaters and movie cinemas the green light to install cell phone jamming equipment on their premises. The move is designed to shield the audience from the irritation of ringing cell phones and impolite talkers, but the French government included a provision that jamming equipment must allow emergency calls to get through. The French Minister of Industry backed the move which will make both receiving and making calls impossible in areas targeted by jamming equipment, but jamming device operators cannot target places such as lobbies or waiting areas.

The provision allowing for emergency use eliminates the one major objection commonly voiced by users, but just how the technology works is not yet clear. A typical jamming device generates "noise" that indiscriminately renders phones in its wake inoperable. The approved system clearly allows for emergency calls to get through, but how this is done securely and with the accuracy needed remains a mystery. As a point of clarification, it appears that "emergency calls" only includes outgoing calls to emergency services, not incoming calls from individuals claiming to need to reach someone in an emergency.

While many applaud the decision, some are still concerned that sensible phone jamming could end up becoming a kind of moral crusade, with the end result being a proliferation of cell jamming. Should cell phones be jammed in classrooms or libraries? What about courthouses or museums? Should private business owners have the right to install jamming equipment at their own discretion? It's easy to imagine a proliferation of "cell phone free" zones around Boston, at least.

On the Left Coast, Huntington Beach, California recently instituted steep fines for repeat offenders of its own library cell phone ban, but many people find the law to be a frivolous waste of law enforcement resources. A technology-based solution might seem ideal, but it is likely to meet with stiff resistance in the US. The FCC has, for the most part, supported the legal right of individuals to receive wireless broadcasts, and it is not clear that merely eliminating a nuisance would lead the FCC to support such technology outside of the confines of places such as hospitals, where it is commonly charged that such wireless devices are risky. Even then, doctors in the US and elsewhere are starting to call for an end to the cell phone ban, calling its foundations "an old wives' tale."

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.